A stream computing system is a high-performance computer system that hosts applications which process multiple data streams from many sources live. On occasion, a stream computing application must be shutdown and restarted in order to make modifications or updates. While stream computing systems and applications running on these systems are optimized for continuous data processing, they lack the ability to gracefully process already inputted data through to completion prior to a shutdown of a stream computing application. This may result in gaps in data processing when applications are restarted. While in some applications, this potential data loss may be acceptable, in other applications the potential loss of data may be an unacceptable risk.
In one existing approach, the inputting of data into a particular stream computing application may be stopped prior to shutdown. However, this approach does not guarantee a lack of data loss or that already inputted data will be processed to completion prior to shutdown. In another existing approach, a two-phase shutdown process is used, where the shutdown is delayed for a certain period of time after the inputting of data into a stream computing application is stopped. However, this approach provides no guarantee that a correct duration for delaying the shutdown is used. A delay that is too short will result in data loss, while a delay that is too long will adversely impact system availability.